Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 115
RUSSIA AS THREAT
George Michael is an associate professor of criminal justice at Westfield State University in Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. from George Mason University’s School of Public Policy. Previously, he was an associate professor
of nuclear counter-proliferation and deterrence theory at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala. Michael is
the author of seven books, and his articles have been published in numerous academic journals. He has lectured on
C-SPAN2’s BookTV segment on five occasions.
Notes
1. Michael Crowley and Simon Shuster, “‘This is War,’” Time, 19
May 2014, 32.
2. Wynne Russell, “Russian Relations with the Near Abroad,” in
Russian Foreign Policy Since 1990, ed. Peter Shearman (Boulder, CO:
Westview Press, 1995), 53. Areas of Ukraine formally came under the
control of the Tsardom of Russian in the late eighteenth century after
the partitions of Poland and the conquest of the Crimean Khanate.
Since then, Ukraine has been part of a union with Russia until it gained
its independence with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
As Wynne Russell explained, some of the erstwhile Soviet republics, Ukraine and Belarus in particular, have been “viewed by many
Russians as not merely former family members but in fact as indivisible
from the concept of Russia itself.”
3. Crowley and Shuster, 33.
4. David Paul, “Xi and Putin Playing Dangerous Games to Mask Domestic Problems,” The Huffington Post, 12 May 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-paul/xi-and-putin-playing-dang_b_5307549.
html (accessed 5 November 2014).
5. Julie Pace, “Obama Expands U.S. Sanctions against Russia, including Putin Advisors, Bank,” Associated Press, 20 March 2014, http://
www.reviewjournal.com/news/obama-expands-us-sanctions-againstrussia-including-putin-advisors-bank (accessed 13 November 2014).
6. Stephen Sestanovich, “A Bold EU Move Against Vladimir
Putin?” The Wall Street Journal blog “Washington Wire,” entry posted
7 May 2014, http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/05/07/a-bold-e-umove-against-vladimir-putin/, (accessed 5 November 2014). Because
of its dependence on natural gas from Russia, Europe will be hardpressed to follow through with this sanction as a means to temper
Putin’s aggression.
7. Marissa Payne, “Vladimir Putin makes his WWE debut at ‘Extreme Rules,’” The Washington Post, 5 May 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/05/05/vladimir-putin-makeshis-wwe-debut-at-extreme-rules/ (accessed 5 November 2014).
8. John W. Parker, Russia’s Revival: Ambitions, Limitations, and Opportunities for the United States (Washington D.C.: Center for Strategic
Research, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense
University, 2010), 10-11.
9. Steven Eke, “Russia Faces Demographic Disaster,” BBC News, 7
June 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5056672.stm (accessed
5 November 2014).
10. “Russians Offered Day Off, Prizes to Procreate,” Associated
Press, 14 August 2007, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/20268426/
ns/world_news-europe/t/russians-offered-day-prizes-procreate/#.U-UUruNdWuo (accessed 5 November 2014); Tom Parfitt,
“Vladimir Putin Pledges to Spend £32bn on Increasing Russian Life
Expectancy,” The Guardian, 21 April 2011, http://www.theguardian.
MILITARY REVIEW January-February 2015
com/world/2011/apr/21/vladimir-putin-increasing-russian-life-expectancy (accessed 5 November 2014).
11. Parker, 20.
12. Walid Pares, The Confrontation: Winning The War against
Future Jihad (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008), 97.
13. Thomas Graham, “The Sources of Russia’s Insecurity,” Survival,
52(1), (February/March 2010): 55.
14. Eugene Bazhanov, “Russian Policy Toward China,” in Russian
Foreign Policy Since 1990, ed. Peter Shearman (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1995), 159.
15. Parker, 22.
16. Joseph A. D’Agostino, “Motherless Russia – Muslims and
Chinese Vie For Huge Assets of Dying Nation,” Life Site, 26 December
2006, http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/motherless-russia-muslims-and-chinese-vie-for-huge-assets-of-dying-nation (accessed 5
November 2014); Matthias Schepp, “Change in Russia’s Far East:
China’s Growing Interests in Siberia,” Der Spiegel, 6 May 2011, http://
www.spiegel.de/international/world/change-in-russia-s-far-east-chinas-growing-interests-in-siberia-a-761033.html (accessed 22 June 2014).
17. Ilan Berman, Implosion: The End of Russia and What it Means
for America (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2013), 52-65.
18. Thomas Graham, “New U.S. National Military Strategy: The
United States sees Russia as an Asian power,” Valdai Discussion Club,
10 February 2011, http://valdaiclub.com/opinions/a162532266.
html (accessed 10 July 2014). Thomas Graham, the senior director
of Kissinger Associates, opined that the strategy suggested a shift
away from the Global War on Terrorism, which lay at the center of
President George W. Bush’s foreign and security policy, toward a
greater focus on the rise of Asia; see also Department of Defense, The
National Militar y Strategy of the United States (Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Department of Defense, 2011), https://acc.dau.mil/adl/en-US/425505/
file/55897/2011%20National%20Military%20Strategy.pdf (accessed
5 November 2014).
19. Dmitri Trenin, “Russia Reborn: Reimagining Moscow’s Foreign
Policy,” Foreign Affairs (November/December 2009): 78.
20. Berman, 29-30.
21. Michael Mainville, “Islam Thrives as Russia’s Population
Falls,” Toronto Star, 3 December 2006, http://www.imra.org.il/story.
php3?id=31875 (accessed 5 November 2014).
22. “Russia reports surge in illegal immigration from Asia,” Indian
Express, 26 May 2010, http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/russiareports-surge-in-illegal-migration-from-asia/623952/ (accessed 22
June 2014).
23. Owen Matthews, “The Backlash Against Immigration in Russia,”
Newsweek, 13 February 2009, http://www.newsweek.com/backlash-against-immigration-russia-82703 (accessed 5 November 2014).
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